Are You Ready to Learn How to Practice Longboard Dancing? – Everything You Need to Know about This Sport

Welcome to the new world of longboard dancing performance!

If your new hobby is longboard dancing, our article is written for you. We will show you everything you need to know about this sport.

From the definition of longboard dancing, some basic preparations for dance practice, seven popular techniques, and many more.

We will walk you through all the process.

So let’s begin with what the longboard dancing is.

Dancing is One of the Popular Tricks on Board Surfing

It requires a lot of walking and spinning skills. This sport is derived from walking in the longboard.

A longboard is used for this kind of technique when it has the length of 45 inches and the width of up to 12 inches.

Although you can perform most of the tricks on the small decks, you still need a more massive deck to dance more comfortably and use fewer skills.

Most longboard dances look smoother due to the inherent design of a longboard. It can make you move faster when going downhill because you can maintain better balance.

It can make your movements smooth. It will also bring the unique style to the way you skate once you master this trick.

Moreover, it’s incredibly exciting, and you’ll be more passionate about it after practice and performance. It helps you stand out in a great party as it will impress the ladies and smooth out the dance floor.

You will learn how to recover and deal with the crash. The curves and shapes of your longboard will start to make more sense when moving smoothly with your dance.

You will catch the women’s eyes after performing some tricks of your longboard dancing. On the contrary, if you are a lady, you will attract and get the admiration of the men.

It sounds great, isn’t it?

That’s the reasons why many people are interested in this kind of technique.

So how about you? Are you ready to learn various kinds of techniques in the longboard dancing sport?

Let’s get started with the devices you need when starting to dance on the longboard.

What Will You Need to do to Implement this Technique?

It is the item people always worry about, a gear. Do not let it be a limiting factor in your hobby.

Believe it or not, we are very sure that you can dance on a smaller board or something just not specifically made for dancing.

Although you can use any longboard on the market, there are specific products if you want to be a professional rider.

The Size of Deck and Flex Used for Longboard Dancing

You need to be aware of buying more massive dance deck than the other styles, and it is from 42” to 48” in length and width up to 12”.

At that time, the deck gives you plenty of space to move and cross your legs while you control the longboard moving.

A strong deck along with some flex is used for some pops. Nowadays, the manufacturer designs the new dance deck with less flex than before.

So, when you perform free and technical tricks, it will be harder. The tip here is that you can choose a harder board for this activity.

Thing to remember: You often have some flex with the 42″and above longboard deck.

Moreover, for some manufacturers, you can have several flex options based on your weight and preferences – the hardness of the deck increases based on your weight.

If you like to use your longboard regularly, you need to have a more flexible deck for a comprehensive set of dance techniques.

The Form of the Longboard Deck

The form of deck contains an evenly shaped cutaway with kicktails at the two ends. Thanks to the cutaway, you are provided with wheel clearance for heavy carving and weight transfer when using the longboard while the kicktails help you to dance with many tricks.

Most of the top mounted decks are stronger,provide more leverage to the truck, control, and responsibility, and also support for the jump together with step continuity.

The deck usually has a reasonably flat floor with subtle concave to allow your feet to move freely around the floor.

There are also some rockers – vertical curvature with low midpoints or micro drop – the entire platform of standing is lowered compared to the attachment point so that it is comfortable to move.

The Longboard Trucks and Wheels

You need the inverted kingpin trucks that can spin much more than your conventional truck for faster engraving. In addition, you should also buy the product with higher angles (50 degrees and above) and open seats for the quicker turning of the dancing board.

With wheels, you need 70-74mm ones with square lips to have better traction and carving while you do the stepping.

When you want to cruise on a longboard, you can use a quite soft wheel like 80A, and for the sliding and street-like tricks, you need a harder wheel of 86A.

If you want to use the longboard seriously with your dance style, you should buy smaller wheels with a tiny patch for easier sliding and less wheel bite.

The Best Dancing Longboards

You can choose the Loaded Bhangra 48″ with a narrower board, or the Loaded Tarab 47″ of the Bhangra with improved performance and higher price.

If the budget is limited, you can buy the Rayne Whip 47″ with lightweight bamboo and fiberglass material or the Moonshine Hoedown 48″ with waterproof deck.

Some Notes About Helmet and Protection Pads

If you are a beginner in longboard dancing, to safely walk on the board while on the move, you need to invest in the proper protective gear.

Before you master the skills, even if you dance on a flat deck, you may fall several times while learning to cross step and spinning on your longboard deck. Therefore, you need at least a good helmet, some knee pads, gloves and wrist protectors.

A suitable helmet has the right size for you, certification for skateboarding or bicycling, proper ventilation, tight straps and you can choose the favorite design and color.

For knee pads, gloves and wrist protectors, we recommend that longboard dancing beginners need to equip them and depending on your level of skill, you can consider removing protections because they are sometimes entangled as you move and perform skills on the longboard.

Finally, longboard dancing is highly performative. So your dress, socks and shoes, hairstyle should also be chosen to attract the crowd around.

Next, What Makes an Excellent Longboard for Dancing?

The best longboards have features assisting good performance well. Usually, they have a double kicktail so you can easily pop the board to follow the instructions and use the tip.

The dancing decks are longer than the kinds of free set, downhill or cruiser. This extended platform offers you greater mobility and is more accessible to the longboard borders.

Flex softeners make a table jump better, and it is soft enough for you to play with flex when moving.

Finally, weight is an essential factor. With more extended floor, you feel more weight due to additional flooring material. Look for a weightless setting, so it’s easier to control.

You will also want to get a helmet and some protective pads for knee, wrists, and elbows if you are new to this sport because you can spend less than visiting the doctor for your crash wounds.

Now you have the necessary information about longboard dancing.

We invite you to explore further about dance techniques with a longboard.

For Beginners, What Longboard Dance Techniques do You Need to Learn First?

In this article, we introduce to you the seven most common techniques. Each technique will come with specific implementation steps so that you can proceed with ease.

So here we go.

The First One is the Cross Step

Cross Step is the most basic move of longboard dancing to crave and create S turns while going up and down on your deck, turning around when stepping back and forth.

You start in a normal riding position at a moderate pace. Then you put your front foot back in the front of your rear foot, with your front toes forward, so your feet are close together in a perpendicular place. Remember to move your shoulder forwards.

Next, you use the back foot to cross over and put in the front foot forepart, close to the heelside of the board edge, and then you turn your hind foot to point forwards.

When both your feet are near the heelside, you switch your weight on it to make the heelside of longboard carve (to the left for a frequent).

Now you use your front leg to cross. You need to put it in your back foot front, press your toes into the board toes rail to start a front carving (remember to take a right turn for riding frequently).

Lastly, take your hind legs back, bend your knees and press both feet toes into the front rails to go on the turn of frontside.

Another Basic Technique is Peter Pan

Before starting this technique, you also begin in a normal riding position with some momentum. You put your front leg close and perpendicular to the hind leg in the middle of the deck.

However, you put the front leg along the toe rail as you will make a carve of toeside – a right turn for a regular or left one for a goofy.

You continue to move your hind legs out of the board and cross over the front leg. When passing your legs, you should put both feet near together and close to the rail of heelside.

Next, you transfer the weight to the back foot sitting next to the front foot, use your foot ball to push into the rail of heelside, then make the turn of heelside.

When doing the heelside carve, you raise the front leg off the deck and cross it over the hind legs in the back. Then, you transfer the weight to the front leg and push on the toe rail to start a new carve of toeside.

You need to shift the weight significantly on the rail when you set the next foot down to make a lovely dance. You can also rotate your legs around as you cross the other leg, due to the rotating motion can highlight your carving skill.

The Third most Complicated Technique is the Ghost Ride

Once again, start with the normal posture riding. Then, you can carry your hind leg to the back deck and pull the front leg close to the hind one with the two heels near each other and the toes directing forward. The feet are close to the board tail. Your front foot is almost in the middle horizontally at the equal gap between the two rails.

You continue to raise your hindfoot off the board deck and turn it over your front leg, change the position of the hind leg over the front one and the board heelside edge, and down the ground.

When crossing your legs, you touch the ground with your hind foot, and you start to lift the foreleg from the board.

At this point, your hind leg is stepping on the road, you cross front leg near hind one and jump on the board with your forefoot. Then, you put your rear foot back to the original position.

It’s Time to Practice the Pirouette Technique

You ride the board regularly and start pulling your hind leg toward the board end and your foreleg in the middle of the board, with the ball of foot upon the board center.

You continue to rotate by rolling back the shoulders as a spring, and then you throw your shoulders in the direction of motion to create a dynamic revolves around yourself and pull your hips and knees into this movement.

Finally, you rotate fully with 360 degrees on the forefoot ball and land down with the original posture. Remember to turn in the left direction for a regular goofy.

Tip for you is to practice on the non-rolling surfaces such as grass or sand firstly. As a new practice, you can stop halfway through the rotation or fall off your board. But do not give up until you can spin a full 360 degree round with your longboard. Practice makes perfect.

If You have Strong Balance Skill, Try the Chop the Wood Technique

You begin to roll on the longboard with the foot’s position at an angle of nearly 90 degrees with the board to help you carve more easily.

Next, you will rotate the forefoot along the rail of heelside and point forward, then press the ball of foot on the track to begin a turn of heelside.

The next move is to squat down on the foreleg, switch the shoulder forward and shove the hips.

At the same time, you raise your arms forward to keep your balance on the board. At this point, you open the hind leg to shove it off the longboard.

Finally, you return to normal posture in the carve position of toeside. This posture causes the foot ball to press the toe rail, and the knees bent, the weight transferred to the board front edge to begin carving forward.

You need to have excellent balance skills before performing Chop the Wood, a lovely dance and carving action.

This technique helps you to dance beautifully, and you need to practice a lot to get the best results.

Combination Technique with Ghostride Kickflip

You can practice the Ghost Ride with a kickflip, here are the steps to do:

You also begin to ride the longboard in the normal position, then jump off the board from the heel to the forefoot and step forward. Now your rear foot comes down in the board middle.

Then, you can put the hind foot to the ground and your toe beneath the board, and you raise the board with the foot top to flip it 360 degrees all over its horizontal axis.

This easy foot kick is done by pulling up the board with the hip jumping, and the knees bent in 90 degrees. When the board finishes its full spin, you come down from the jump on the longboard top with both of your feet.

You can practice flipping your longboard alone before integrating the flip with the Ghost Ride skill.

More Challenging Combination Technique – The Casanova

It’s so great to have a hard skill containing three actions such as the essential Cross Step, Peter Pan, and also the advanced Ghostride Kickflip.

Since you know these three techniques, it is easier to teach Casanova, so you can practice basic skills well before performing this complex skill.

Let’s follow our steps:

You always start with the average pace riding on your longboard. Then you place the feet back, with the forefoot in the perpendicular position to the rear foot. After that, you can cross the back leg over the front one, taking it to the front (Cross Step technique).

Next, you cross your foreleg through the hind one, putting them parallel to each other as in the Peter Pan technique.

You continue to cross the hind leg through the front one (Peter Pan), but do not place them parallel but move your hind leg across the board edge to step onto the ground a surface.

Finally, you put the hind foot slightly under the longboard to flip it through the 360 degrees and jump up quickly to the board in one motion (like kickflip).

How Dangerous is Longboard Dancing?

Dancing in longboard is not normal skateboarding. Riders need to make fast longboard techniques that include performance skills and flexibility in longboard control.

In addition, every sport has a specific danger, so longboard dancing is no exception. What you need to do is overcome your fear, practice skills well with the necessary protection.

We want to send you some essential notes including:

You should always remember to wear a helmet, other types of protection including knee pads and wrist protectors you should also buy for safer longboard riding.

You need to know if you are a regular or riding goofy so that you can choose the right place for performing dance techniques on the longboard. We suggest that the practice place can be an empty alley, a parking lot or a wide broadway.

You should practice the techniques of longboard dancing with your friends or family so that everyone can help each other as soon as possible in case of injury, and you will improve quickly when someone supports you.

Last but not least, practice makes perfect. You can stay calm and deal with problems, errors of techniques, wrong turns, fast speed, speed wobbles, etc. better if you meet them after a hundred practice sessions on the longboard.

All in All, What Longboard Dancing Technique do You Like to Practice First?

If you are very passionate about longboard dancing, we hope our article bring you the basic knowledge about this sport and the tips to start practicing some favorite techniques.

With beautiful performance style and attractive motions, the longboard dancing is trendy and famous among riders worldwide.

No matter who you are, what you do, you can perform longboard dancing. As long as you exercise diligently, move carefully to avoid injury and improve the skills, you can make the most impressive performances in front of your friends and family.

Do not forget to buy for yourself a proper longboard for dancing, a good helmet, enough protective pads, then choose a wide and flat area and begin practicing seven basic dancing skills including Cross Step, Peter Pan, Ghost Ride, Pirouette, Chop the Wood, Ghostride Kickflip, and Casanova.

Let’s come to a local sports shop or a reliable shopping online for your dream longboard.

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About Sammy Jackson

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